


The Serpent Squad

by perseajackson



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Gen, Other, Star Wars - Freeform, bc a character is an alcoholic oops and hes 20 so uhh watch out, it doesnt come up all the time but its in there, smuggler characters, stories of characters from a star wars ttrpg game i play in, there may be reference to abuse but none actual abuse should be present, there's gonna be trigger warnings in each chapter for anything potentially triggering, theyre smugglers and i mean like its star wars so like yknow there IS some violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:07:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 12,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25995715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perseajackson/pseuds/perseajackson
Summary: Aboard theMetal Serpentresides twi'lek Captain Koyi; her right hand and best pal, human smuggler Keeva Trisk; her old friend and (dare I sayold flame?) human Mandalorian bounty hunter Essek Vizsla; recently, uh, acquired mechanic and nautolan teenager Khasper Truits; and zeltron Jedi Knight recently released from being frozen in time Allura Faust.Koyi and Keeva, smuggler partners, have spent the last three years together traveling the galaxy being excellent smugglers. After a job on Manaan at an imperial base gets a wrench thrown in by Keeva's older sister, they now find themselves more-or-less running from the Empire with three additional crewmates trying to sort through emotions, their relationships with each other, and possibly some Force Training if they get two seconds to breathe.---This is a collection of blips n bloops I've written for the sw ttrpg came I play in that cara (@melxncholly here) runs! more info in chapter 1 notes uwu





	1. Caught in a Skirmish

**Author's Note:**

> SO. some of these are written from my PC Keeva's perspective of events that actually happened in game, some are just things I wrote that could happen in down time during the game but aren't canon, some are a mix of the 2, and some are AU things. i'll identify what's canon and what's not in each chapter.
> 
> \---
> 
> quick disclaimer for this work overall!!!!
> 
> a lot of these characters are made up by cara- her characters are essentially everyone except Keeva (who is my sweet baby son), Koyi (who is abby's PC and wonderful snake-themed daughter), the Caraxio family (which cara and i like, co-maintain lmao), and uhhh there may be others but like cara IS the gm so she is basically everyone lmao so i'll just clarify at times if need be if other characters show up. 
> 
> \---
> 
> this first blip chapter whatever is Not Canon, so it didn't happen in the game. it's just an idea that i had so i wrote it!! this takes place on some planet the crew is on for a job or something. throws up hands. brain said "write it" so i wrote it here it is bon apple tea

Keeva hadn't been asleep long, and the blaring alarm kicked his limbs into autopilot as his groggy mind tried to figure out what was happening. He hopped out of bed, for a moment thinking he was back on Carida and being forced to run another 3am drill, but his memories caught up with him as he emerged from his quarters and the familiar walls of the Serpent brought him back to reality. He ran to the cockpit, barefoot and donned only in his vornskr-printed pajama pants, giving himself a half-moment to look outside as he sat in his copilot seat to locate the alarm going off. 

"Sprock!!" he shouted, gritting his teeth as something slammed into the ship and made the entire craft shudder. He called his captain's name again as he frantically began firing up the ship and carefully directing power to the top and rear shields.

Keeva risked another glance away from the dash as he noticed blaster fire in the sky, and his mouth fell open as he realized two small ships were engaged in a firefight with three TIE fighters. He swore under his breath and watched as one of the TIEs got a nasty shot to the wing, and he activated the shields just as they alerted him they were charged and just as the debris flew towards them.

"What the hell are they doing out there?" Koyi's voice appeared next to him, and he allowed a breath of relief to pass by his lips.

"We need to leave," Keeva responded. "They're not moving their fight, so we need to get away."

"We can't just leave yet, Trisk, we still have to-" Koyi started to say, but another explosion nearby made the entire ship shake.

"What the kriff is going on?!" Essek demanded as he, too, entered the cockpit.

"Then we need to move somewhere else for the night and we can return to port tomorrow," Keeva said, flipping a few switches to prep the engines and finally getting the original proximity alarm that woke him up turned off. He saw two more TIEs and an elite fighter fly by that had a non-empire ship on their tail firing at them. "Mandalorian, get to the guns. Shoot debris away so we can move."

"Excuse me?" Essek said, with the tone of someone raising their eyebrow in defiance. Stars, that guy made Keeva's blood  _ boil _ .

"We're moving the ship, man the guns and watch our backs," Koyi repeated. 

There was a short hesitation before the Mandalorian simply said, "You got it, Captain."

"Guys? What's going on out there? Are we being attacked?" Khasper's sleepy and worried voice came in over the comms from the engine room.

"Just caught in a crossfire, buddy," Keeva told him, following Koyi's nonverbal directions for specific controls she wanted him to turn on.

"We're moving the ship, Kas," Koyi told him. "Are there any noticeable issues with the engine or alarms down there?"

"N-No captain!" Kas responded, and they heard him tinker with something. "She's good to go down here!"

"Then we're moving," Koyi said, and together, she and Keeva got the ship into the air, narrowly avoiding another explosion as they moved away from the ports.

Keeva didn't know how, and he didn't currently have the space in his brain to contemplate it, but he suddenly realized that Allura had silently entered the cockpit as well. "Nothing to worry about, Master Faust, just moving away from a skirmish."

"That seemed hardly like a skirmish," Allura's gentle tone noted, and he felt her place a hand on the shoulder of his chair.

"We seem to be clear from my perspective," Essek chimed in over the comms.

"Thanks, Ez," Koyi responded. "Trisk, deactivate shields. We're going to land quietly on the other side of this village. Engage landing gear at point-one-four."

"Likely some troublemakers trying to pull a fast one over on local imperial forces by pulling some scheme in the middle of the night," Keeva muttered with a sigh, following Koyi's orders and letting his hands take care of the controls by themselves, landing the ship with his partner while his mind began to wander.

The ship touched down, and they shut everything down, staying silent for a moment before Koyi told Peanut to do a scan to see if there were any imperial holds nearby or ships approaching. Only after Peanut confirmed they were clear, did the pair of them exhale with relief in unison. 

"That was impressive maneuvering," Allura complimented. "You're quite the pilot, Sprocket."

"Thank you," Koyi said, standing up with another sigh. She reached over and ruffled a hand through Keeva's sleep-mussed curls and said affectionately, "Vornskr jammies over here is thankfully quick on his feet."

Keeva hummed and flashed her a small smile before half-hearted batting her hand away from his hair. "I'll do a quick perimeter check," he told her as he did a couple more things at the dash. "Everyone else go back to bed, we should be fine for the rest of the night. Or, well, I guess it's  _ morning _ now. Whatever."

"Are you sure? I think we're fine here," Koyi said softly. 

Keeva turned in his chair and nodded. "I can't sleep now anyway. May as well do something useful." Koyi gave him a nod and then nodded at Allura as she left the cockpit. Keeva stood and looked at Allura, who was regarding him with an expression he couldn't read. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, yes, I'm fine," she said with a nod. "I just sense you feel uneasy, and perhaps not just from this brief ordeal." Her tone was curious and concerned, and a part of Keeva felt defensive and wished she'd clearly been trying to attack or mock him so he could snap back about it.

He glanced out at the meadow field they'd landed in and lifted his hand to his right bicep to rub away an old pain. "I'm fine," he said, turning his attention back to the jedi. "I grew up in military academies. Late night alarms like this are not unfamiliar, despite how unwanted they always are."


	2. Exhaustion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is not canon, so this hasn't happened in the canon of our game. this would take place in some down time between missions somewhere

Keeva laid on the cool metal floor of the  _ Serpent _ . He was catching his breath and staring up at the various plants hanging from the ceiling. The floor felt nice against the bare skin of his back, and he bit his lip as his chest heaved. 

Thirty laps around the ship, a round of push-ups and pull-ups before and after, another fifteen laps, several minutes of sprinting, more pull-ups, a round of stretching and planks, five minutes of more push-ups, and he still wasn't tired. He'd been trying to wear himself out for hours now, but he just felt more wired than before. He let his eyes close as he whined quietly to himself. 

His breathing was mostly evened out now. He pushed himself up and looked around, fixing the clip holding his bangs back to resecure his curls away from his face, and he sighed as he easily pulled himself to stand. He could go run diagnostics over the systems… no, just the thought had him bored. Besides, they'd just checked all the systems earlier in the evening. He could try to tidy up his room; Essek's snide remarks about the cleanliness of his room had struck a nerve for sure. His room was an organized mess. Keeva worked best in chaos. Still, he knew there were a few projects and books that needed to be put away, as well as some clothes he hadn't gotten around to washing yet…

He wandered to his room and looked around, toweling the sweat off his neck and chest as he tried to think of literally anything more interesting or exhausting to do. He was about to give up when he saw his new blaster on his desk, and a small grin came to his lips.

\--

"Okay, Peanut, so just try your best to shoot me, alright?" Keeva said as he handed the droid the blaster. Peanut asked in a sly tone if it was set to kill, and Keeva rolled his eyes as he adjusted his mask and moved across the clearing. " _ No _ , it isn't set to kill, you disastrous little droid," he said. "I've altered it so it can only stun, but it sends minor electric pulses rather than stun blasts. It won't knock anyone out easily, but it should still send out an irritating shock." 

Peanut asked if Keeva was sure it worked, and Keeva took position about twenty feet away from the droid. "I'm mostly sure!" he said, spreading his arms. Peanut expressed his little faith in Keeva's abilities, and the boy rolled his eyes. "Look, if it works then it works. If it doesn't, then you'll kill me by accident. Win-win, yes? Just start shooting!”

There wasn’t much for cover nearby, just a few dead trees and a bush that would be almost entirely useless in this exercise. Keeva dodged the first few shots with ease, simply watching Peanut’s arm move and getting out of the way, but as he kept himself in motion and Peanut began rolling around to try and blast him, Keeva had a few close calls and could feel the electricity brush past his skin as he moved out of the way. He heard a laugh escape his lips as he ducked past two sequential blasts and almost got caught in the arm by the third one. He was surprised at how long he kept the game up before he made a misjudgement and Peanut finally clocked him in the hip.

“Ow! Kriff!” Keeva swore, flinching from the pain and then again as he moved to avoid Peanut’s merciless continued blasterfire. “That packs a nasty sting!” Peanut asked how many shots it would take to kill him, and Keeva snorted as he ducked behind one of the trees to catch a few breaths. “More than you’ll ever be able to catch me with, droid!” He picked up a rock and skirted around the tree just as Peanut was rolling to a better position to shoot him, and he chucked the small stone over, hitting Peanut right between the angry eyebrows Koyi had installed on him and sending him scooting back a few inches. He got in a good couple seconds of laughter as Peanut began a flurry of vulgar language and more erratic shooting. A few stray shots caught Keeva in the side and back, but Keeva still considered himself winning their little game.

“Did I set your circuits off balance?” he taunted, a gasp pausing his laughter with another close call, and a wheezed chuckle managing its way out of him as Peanut insulted him again. “You should ask Sprock for a tune-up, Peanut! You’re a bit sluggish tonight!” he continued, smirking at the droid, who appeared to almost be steaming with frustration. He skidded to a halt directly in front of Peanut, and made a dash straight for the droid, dodging the first few blasts that Peanut fired before he clearly realized Keeva’s goal and started swearing and driving away from him. Keeva sidestepped another few blasts and lunged at Peanut, snatching his blaster back from his little metal claw and exclaiming triumphantly with his blaster pointed at the droid. He had about one second to feel victorious before Peanut whipped out one of his arms and delivered a strong shock right into Keeva’s thigh, pressing the little prongs against his leg for the few seconds it took for Keeva to quickly jump away.

“You karking bucket of bolts!!” Keeva snapped, delivering a kick to Peanut’s middle and hopping out of the way of another attempt to shock him. Peanut shook a fist at him and relayed a handful of protests. “You did not win! If anything,  _ I  _ won, and it wasn’t even anything to win at- Why did I win? Because I retrieved the weapon from you and had you in check- No that doesn’t count!! You would  _ not _ have killed me if it had been set to kill, because that would imply that you were not aiming to kill me the entire time, and we  _ both _ know that’s not true- Well you can object all you want if you-”

Something caused Keeva to stop talking, and he hesitated as he realized they weren’t alone outside the ship anymore. He quickly turned with his blaster raised, finding Allura Faust standing nearby watching them, unfazed by his readied weapon.

“Master Faust,” Keeva said, eyes widening as he dropped his arm and felt blood rush to flush his cheeks.

\---

The sight reminded Allura a little bit of the younglings back at the temple. She could recall a handful of them who would turn their training sessions into games, never out to harm each other but never holding back in their attacks. There were always a few younglings who delighted in the adrenaline and chaos of a fight, and it seemed that Keeva Trisk was little different. 

He was unarmed, wearing casual navy pants with a green stripe down each leg tucked into his boots and a light, mostly unbuttoned shirt haphazardly tucked into the pants. Rather than his usual headband to hold his curly hair out of his face, there were a few clips trying in vain to keep his eyes clear of his locks that seemed more of a golden red in this planet’s moonlight. He dodged most of the blasts easily, despite the droid’s clearly determined attempts to catch and shoot him. Keeva’s laughter made him seem younger, although it was hard to gauge by how much since Allura wasn’t sure of how old he was in the first place, but the laughter coming from his lips and the way his shoulders seemed not to bear whatever usual burden weighed upon them made Allura smile a little sadly. 

The boy was obviously very capable, despite his strong connection with the Force that no doubt aided in his agility, and it made her wonder how much of his young life had been spent training like this, preparing for fights. He was certainly more complex than his usual cocky-yet-civil demeanor let on. She looked down at her hands, still blissfully covered by his gloves- proof that there was kindness in him, despite the stubbornness he seemed to hold in most situations and the way he did not seem to fear engaging in violence. A strongly Force-sensitive person with such untamed energy, such cockiness, and such an aptitude for a fight could be very dangerous. Allura could almost hear echoes of things the Masters might have said about this boy.

But she was no Jedi Master, and another glance at her gloved hands encouraged her instincts that there was plenty of hope for this boy. Perhaps once she got to know him more, she would be able to understand how to help him find some sense of balance through the Force, if he would even become interested in such a thing.

Keeva suddenly switched from prey to predator, flipping on an instant and giving Peanut no time to react before he lunged and confiscated the blaster. He stood with confidence and a very smug smirk as his chest heaved and his hand held steady the blaster pointed at the droid. Allura gasped when the droid shocked him, attacking back and began rambling off to Keeva. She listened to them bicker, finding the smallest smile come to her lips, and she watched as Keeva paused and finally turned around and saw her. She was intrigued by his golden stare, wondering if the trait had to do with his home planet or if it was familial. She paid no attention to his defensive stance or the blaster he trained on her.

“Master Faust,” he said in a much smaller voice, immediately pulling the blaster back and resting his arm at his side. His cheeks began to tinge pink. 

“I did not mean to disturb you,” Allura said apologetically, her smile growing slightly.

“No! No, I mean- We probably woke you up with our arguing-” Keeva began, and Peanut shocked his leg again with what sounded like a protest. Keeva flinched away and used his free hand to shove the droid’s head roughly. “Yes,  _ we! _ Your incorrigible complaining probably woke the whole forest!” Peanut waved his little droid arms and made what might have been meant to be offensive gestures before turning and speeding back onto the ship. Keeva watched the droid go with distaste, then seemed to remember Allura’s presence and gave her an apologetic look. “Sorry about him.”

“You have nothing to apologize for, lad,” Allura promised kindly. “I hope I didn’t interrupt your little training session.”

“Oh, no, it wasn’t anything, really,” he said, a bit of embarrassment twinging his tone as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Besides, by the time Peanut starts trying to shock me like that, he’s pretty much through until his attitude settles down anyway.”

Allura looked around at the evening sky and then back to Keeva. “An odd time to be training, though. Everything alright?”

Keeva squared his shoulders a little self-consciously and said, “I’m absolutely fine, just couldn’t sleep. There’s nothing wrong, just some nights I’m too wired to fall asleep,” he explained, his eyes going past Allura and looking around at the  _ Serpent  _ as he spoke. “I was hoping testing my new blaster and practicing target practice with Peanut would help.”

“And did it?”

“No,” he said reluctantly, running a hand through his hair as he directed his attention back to her. Allura noticed the clips just barely staying snapped into his curls, despite the fact that he’d just jostled away any remaining help they’d been providing. “I’ve been at this for a few hours, exercising and training. I just… have a lot of energy sometimes.” He seemed a little self-conscious about the statement and ruffled his hair again as he tilted his chin up slightly.

She decided not to comment, then, choosing instead to nod towards him and glance at a burn from his blaster visible above his pants past his open shirt. “Your blaster seems to be working, then, although it’s left you a nasty mark. Would you like me to help with that?”

Keeva looked down at the dark red and purple burn that was an ugly and vibrant mark against his pale skin. His skin was reddened to various degrees around the burn, and he tentatively touched around the wound.

"I'm alright," he decided, expression unchanging as he stopped prodding the injury. "But thank you."

"You seem to have an aversion to letting me heal you," Allura said thoughtfully, tilting her head to the side a little. "Why is that?"

His cheeks flushed, and his eyes quickly looked to her face and then to anything else. "I, uh," he started slowly, rubbing his forearm and shifting uncomfortably on his feet. "It's just not… I was raised to be able to take a hit, and there's never enough medkits or supplies to treat every little injury. I'm more comfortable letting it heal on its own than you expending energy on me for something… trivial and ridiculous."

He seemed to be telling the truth, although Allura sensed there was more to it than he let on. "I promise you small injuries hardly take any energy for me to heal. I'm very good at this," she said kindly, clasping her hands together in front of her. 

Still, he shook his head. "You're still recovering from being on ice. You should be resting, recuperating and stuff."

She could tell whatever his discomfort was would not allow him to grant her permission to help, so she simply nodded and walked over to give him a gentle pat on the arm. "I am glad to help, should you change your mind," she said with a nod and a smile. "I can sense the goodness in you, Trisk. Know that it is not weak to ask for help."

He frowned a little as she remarked about his goodness, but she figured he would not appreciate her remarking about it. He nodded once, keeping his eyes away from hers, save for a few quick glances, and said a quiet thanks.


	3. Moment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is a canon moment from a few sessions ago!
> 
> \---
> 
> ace and the crew of the reconnaissance are cara's ocs and also ace is my boyfriend heehee

Keeva sighed and watched the trees go past. He was so sick of all these damn dead trees. It made him think of Naboo, but an apocalyptic version that was dreadful and awful and entirely depressing just by existing. He'd always heard Murkhana was a nice place, but apparently there had been rough times during the Clone Wars that had made that reputation entirely out-of-date.

He didn't want to think of Naboo anymore, and he was sick of being on Murkhana. He just wanted to get back to Koyi and get the hell out of this system. 

And he really wished he hadn't forgotten his flask back on his desk. Idiot. 

He noted some areas they could relocate near if need be as they exited the city, which was slowly coming to be swarming with stormtroopers. Perfect, just what they needed. 

What they  _ needed _ was to get that hyperdrive from this Miss Dea character. Keeva had no doubt she was a local crimelord, and he was grateful for the apparent separation between the locals and the Imperials. It would make staying under the radar when dealing with Dea a lot easier.

After what felt like far too long, Keeva finally saw the  _ Serpent _ through the trees, and he sat up straighter, shifting his feet to move them away from Essek's legs on the floor as much as possible. As soon as Captain Ace stopped the speeder, Keeva was hefting himself up and out, over the door and doing a little spin maneuver to get himself out without kicking Essek too much. He pulled the sunglasses off as soon as he stood back up and took note of everyone milling around outside the ship, including the new human girl and the large wookie at her side. The girl stared at him with eyes a little wide, but as soon as Keeva caught Koyi's eyes, he forgot everyone else was there.

Part of him hated the amount of relief he felt when she locked eye contact with him and smiled at him. He'd spent the last three days cursing himself for allowing himself to get so close to her, for now having done what he'd spent so long trying to avoid doing to other people- he'd gotten her put in danger and wrapped up in  _ his _ mess. He could still protect her somehow, he  _ had _ to, but he didn't think either of them would like the means he's have to go to to keep her safe.

But for now, he dropped the sunglasses as she opened her arms, already laughing at his disguise despite his earlier protests, and he picked her up a little in a tight hug, pressing his face between her cheek and her lekku and grimacing at how comforting her arms wrapped around him felt. He was  _ way _ too close. He didn't know how to feel, aside from the tones of guilt.

_ I missed you _ , he wanted to say, but he couldn't get his voice to work, and he honestly didn't want anyone else to be more a part of this personal moment than they already were. So he held her tight and set her feet back to the ground.

In over three years, those three days had been the longest they'd spent apart. And he felt anxious for every second of them. He'd been without his partner, his best friend, and now that he had her again, he felt his confidence returning along with a feeling of ease settling his nerves and anxiety. 

He heard Essek speaking to Ace, and Koyi lifted a hand and called over, "Ez! Ahh, get in on this!"

"Uh, no, that's okay. I think I'll just wait my turn," Essek said with uncomfortable amusement.

"Yeah, this is my moment," Keeva said stubbornly, giving her another squeeze in the hug when she laughed and no-doubtedly rolled her eyes. He wondered what she was thinking, and if she'd missed him as much as he'd missed her… He'd never ask her about it, but he was well aware he'd never given her such a close or prolonged hug before in their entire relationship, and any time he'd come close had been when he/they were drinking.

"It's alright," he finally said, forcing himself to pull away and drop his arms. He gave her a tight smile she couldn't see from behind his mask, and he stepped back, awkwardly putting his hands together in front of him. "He can have his turn now," he said, stepping back more and glancing over at Essek, who took no time to stroll over and lift Koyi up higher than Keeva had in his own bear hug. Keeva chose to ignore this fact as he turned and went to thank Captain Ace.


	4. As Good As Dead [part 1]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After bringing his son, Keeva, along the star destroyer he and his daughter, Liah, are stationed on for a day of shadowing, Paxa Caraxio receives news that his son is... _gone._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this is sort of part of explaining the backstory for how keeva and koyi met, but from keeva's dad's perspective. _i_ would say this is pretty much canon!! this occurs in like 15 BBY. this fic also uses a headcanon that twi'leks do not have red blood. the internet didn't give me a straight answer when i tried to research so its headcanon time
> 
> Trigger Warnings:
> 
> blood, mention of violence, mention of death (of a minor/teenager), mention of kidnapping
> 
> \--
> 
> for more context on the relationship between keeva and his dad and sister, you can check out some of the works in my other fic called "the caraxios" !!! there may or may not be some stuff up yet depending on when you are reading this, so i'll give u a spoiler: it's not a great relationship lmao

"Sir- Sir, there's a p-problem," a soldier told him with a strict nod of the head. The lad was trembling like a leaf. 

"What is it?" Paxa asked firmly. "And for goodness sake, pull yourself together, boy."

"Your s-son is missing," the soldier rushed out, keeping his head bowed.

And Paxa's blood chilled. "My son?" he said slowly. "What in the world do you mean? Do you mean Keeva? What do you mean he's _missing?_ "

The soldier finally stood straight again, at least having the nerve to look Paxa in the eyes, though his face was beginning to sweat. "There was an- an incident with a recent prisoner- a twi'lek- it got loose and- well, and-"

"And _what?_ " Paxa asked through his teeth. His temper was on edge enough today, and now there was trouble with Keeva? A cynical part of him scolded himself for being surprised. There was always something with Keeva.

"W-Well, sir, there's a patrol group of troopers left dead, and on-only one mechanic in the hangar has a clear story, and he-" The boy swallowed hard. "He said the twi'lek had taken your son and shot him before escaping on [some ship, maybe some little ship and the serpent was still off on some world]."

Paxa's vision blurred for a brief moment, and his back straightened as if he'd been given a dose of electricity. This could not be. It was impossible- There was absolutely no way his son- _his_ son- could have been captured by a twi'lek and… killed?

His hand snatched the front of the boy's uniform and pulled him forward until they were almost nose-to-nose, and Paxa stared at him hard. As he thought about it, the lad probably wasn't much older than Keeva, perhaps three or four years. "Is this a _fact?_ Or just something a foolish mechanic _saw?_ " he said evenly through clenched teeth. 

"Now, now, Paxa," General Tsuli said behind him, placing a hand on his shoulder, and Paxa slowly released the vibrating messenger boy. "We have the finest security here. We can simply go check the feed-"

"I will look for him myself," Paxa said, turning to his companions and keeping his hands behind his back. "My daughter is stationed here, I will have her check your security. I want to see this _mechanic_ myself." He turned to the pale lad who seemed to be trying to slow his breathing, and he snapped, "Pull yourself together, soldier! Take me to this witness, and if you piss yourself on the way there, I'll have you detained immediately." He knew that wasn't helpful, but his composure had been fractured. Keeva was a lot of things Paxa found… _distasteful_ … but he was his _son_.

After a brief conversation with Liah over the comms, Paxa was shown to the cell where the twi'lek had been held. There was no destruction, no sign of violence. The lock panel was fully intact. The room was clean and orderly, so he supposed the twi'lek hadn't been aboard long enough to be interrogated yet. There was no evidence of a prisoner at all, save for her record on the control log. 

Paxa was taken down to the hangar next, and they passed down a hallway where six dead stormtroopers were being moved. There were a few stray blast marks on the walls, and as Paxa examined the scene slowly and closely, he noticed a small splatter of red blood against one wall, probably ten feet away from the disposed bodies.

So Keeva had been injured. Had he been shot by a trooper mistakenly? Had the prisoner used him as a body shield? The much less desirable option came to the front of his mind as he wondered if Keeva had been shot because he was shooting _at_ the troopers himself. 

Had Keeva… betrayed them?

Paxa shook his head, deciding none of his options had enough fact to stand, though he would prefer an injured son to a traitorous one. He wished he'd been more surprised at the notion of Keeva betraying his family and the Empire because honestly, the boy had never given Paxa any reason to believe he would ever be disloyal to them. His son was obnoxious, loud, and too clever for his own good most of the time. He sought to challenge ideas and rules so fiercely, he would have made an excellent politician if he would ever take matters serious enough. 

Still, Keeva always obeyed orders in the end. He knew it was primarily because Keeva got so bored from arguing that it was in his own interest to comply, but he had always exhibited near-perfect behaviour in the Academy getting in trouble less than even his older siblings had in their years there. Keeva was always out for his own best interest, so surely he was smart enough to know it was in his best interest to _not_ desert his family and Empire.

Once in the hangar, Paxa was shown the spot where Keeva had been reportedly shot. There was more red blood, and an unimpressive trail of it leading to where the [ship stolen] had been docked. The maintenance worker was a spindly man likely only several years younger than himself, and something about the way he spoke with such nervousness made Paxa suspicious. 

"Yes, sir, right over there," the worker agreed, nodding to where Paxa had just come from. "Saw the green one holding a boy in some sort of _grasp_ , like this-" Paxa resisted the urge to roll his eyes as the mechanic mimed holding another person in a way that made no sense at all. "And she fired a blaster- two shots- I reckon to stop the soldiers who came in shortly after 'em, but the boy was struggling just before, and I saw with my own eyes as she- well..," the mechanic faltered, giving Paxa a bit of a wary and regretful look.

"As she _what?_ " Paxa enunciated slowly. He kept his chin up, eyes unblinking as he watched the mechanic swallow hard. 

"Well she… she shot him in the head, sir," the mechanic said, dipping his head. "Only reason I recognized the lad is he happened to look in my direction and he- well he looks so similar to Lieutenant Caraxio, sir. But he went limp and the green one dragged him aboard the ship she stole and took off as I called in the report." The mechanic cleared his throat uncomfortably. "The green one looked pretty rugged, must've caught your boy by surprise somehow."

Paxa didn't bother wasting his breath to correct the foolish man, he simply turned and walked away as the mechanic spoke again to the Major who'd accompanied them.

"We'll find your boy, Paxa," General Tsuli said with what was meant to be a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Between you and I, I'm not sure I trust the word of a tepid mechanic. If Keeva's still alive somehow, he's smart enough to keep himself alive."

Twenty minutes later found Paxa alone with Liah in the General's office. His daughter regarded him with a curt nod, and he could not help the fond smile at her composure. 

"What did you find?" he asked. 

Liah surprised him with a brief hesitation. She looked at him with a grave expression, though he noted anger behind her eyes rather than grief. "Keeva is gone, Father," she said simply, her tone void of emotion.

Paxa narrowed his eyes. "Define _gone_."

"I could not find any evidence of the twi'lek leaving her retainer, nor any involvement from Keeva with her escape, but I saw him being dragged by the twi'lek down a hall in Sector 27, seemingly injured, and it is not clear from the footage if she shot him before boarding the stolen ship or not," Liah explained stiffly. She seemed uncomfortable, and he did not blame her. Despite her differences with Keeva through the years, he was still her little brother. He admired her professionalism now in the face of Keeva's possible death. "Many of the cameras were malfunctioning, and only one in the hangar caught the twi'lek's escape. Unfortunately, it was from a similar angle from the mechanic's viewpoint, and thus it didn't produce any helpful information, except that it is near-impossible to tell if Keeva was shot or merely passed out in the twi'lek's clutches."

Paxa inhaled slowly, processing this less-than encouraging information. "I see," he said calmly. 

"I did discover that someone with inside clearance released the prisoner to begin with, and I believe the same person altered the security cameras," Liah added, and there was something about how her lips twitched when she said "someone with inside clearance" that gave Paxa a peculiar notion.

"Keeva has no way to acquire clearance high enough for either of those tasks," he said firmly, feeling satisfaction at the flash of surprise that passed through his daughter's eyes. "Do you genuinely believe Keeva is responsible for this mess?"

Liah exhaled sharply through her nose. "I do not know what Keeva is capable of, but I would not underestimate his _talent_ for being in places he does not belong," she said with clear bitterness.

"So you do suspect him."

"There is no proof he released the twi'lek or aided in her escape," Liah said firmly, meeting Paxa's gaze with those intense golden eyes. "But the fact that he is still _gone_ under unclear circumstances…"

Paxa waited for her to continue, and she seemed hesitant to speak more blatantly before him, so he gave her a nod of approval.

"The circumstances still leave me suspicious," Liah admitted as she straightened her already perfect posture. "I don't trust Keeva's intentions, Father. Why was he even apart from you to begin with?"

"He was on his way to report to you, as a matter of fact," Paxa said with a quirk of his brow. Liah's composure paused with shock, and Paxa leaned against Tsuli's desk with a sigh. "I'd sent him to shadow under you while I was meeting with General Tsuli and Minister Red. He's been performing well in his strategy exams lately, and I had hoped perhaps he was finally becoming more like his sister."

Liah's nostrils flared just briefly as she averted her eyes to the window behind Tsuli's desk. "I see," she acknowledged. A brief pause passed between them, and she said, "So what would you like me to do?"

 _A wonderful question_ , Paxa thought to himself. He sighed, knowing what they would have to do. "Go on as if the circumstances have not changed. If you decide you need time away to process feelings for your brother-"

"I don't-" Liah snapped, and the motion caught the both of them by such surprise, Paxa just stared at her. Liah quickly bowed her head with wide eyes and apologized. She must have felt truly strong about the matter to have interrupted him, so he just nodded and let it slide.

"Very well. Then business as usual. I will speak with your mother and brother, but I want to see the footage for myself first," he told her firmly, rising from against the desk and strolling over to Liah. "If Keeva is dead, we will mourn. If he betrayed us… He is as good as dead anyway. We will mourn. We will move on."


	5. As Good As Dead [part 2]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adia and Adler Caraxio are informed about the tragic demise of Keeva.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is just sort of the aftermath of the previous chapter!!
> 
> Trigger Warnings:
> 
> mention of death (of a minor/teenager), mourning

Paxa hadn't decided yet how he felt about the circumstances, but it did put a painful crack in his heart to tell his wife what had happened. He watched her heart break behind her eyes, and he tried his best to console her, holding her close that night as she trembled and began to sob in his arms.

"My son… my Keeva..," she whimpered to him.

Paxa tried to impress the possibility of Keeva's betrayal to Adia, but she refused to listen to him. It ignited a twinge of irritation, but he would not deny her preferred decision to mourn their son. If she decided Keeva was better off dead and mourned, he would not argue.

"Adler… Have you told Adler?" Adia asked him with a fragile tone. 

Truth be told, Paxa was abhorrently unsure of how Adler would react. His eldest son had always had a… softness with Keeva. A weakness for his little brother. The way Adler mollycoddled Keeva his whole life caused far too many disagreements to count, and Adler's resilience in his training and now in his official ranks was the only reason Paxa had stopped pestering his son to be tougher on Keeva in recent years. Despite how they acted at home, both boys showed no reflection of the weakness they shared for each other in public or in the field, and that had finally been enough for Paxa to resign to.

Still… how would Adler react? Paxa would have to keep a close eye on him in this aftermath.

"I have not," he told Adia. "Only Liah. She is coping remarkably well and chose to remain dedicated to her work."

He did not miss the flash of anger in his wife's eyes, nor the bitter taste in his mouth of his own reaction to her. "I will tell Adler. He needs to know. He should- He should hear it from me," she said with more confidence than he would have expected she could muster at the moment.

As if on cue, Paxson began crying down the hallway, and Adia took Paxa's face between her cold fingertips. "He loves your lullabies. Tend to him while I go to Adler, will you?" she requested quietly.

Normally he might protest, but he sighed and placed his left hand over hers on his cheek and nodded. "Please be sensible. Be careful."

\---

Adler was surprised to find his mother waiting for him in his small apartment in the Capitol where he was currently stationed. And the moment he saw her red-tinged face and the shattered look in her eyes, his stomach fell through the floor.

And minutes later, he lost his voice. It disappeared as shock and denial flooded his senses and weighted his veins.

"What do you mean  _ gone? _ " he asked carefully, reacting quickly and reaching forward to catch his mother as her legs trembled and seemed to give out. As Adler caught her forearms, she grasped his own arms tightly, painfully, and choked on a sob as she repeated the words.

_ Gone. Gone. Keeva is gone. _

"Mother, please," he tried, easing them down onto his couch and quickly attempting to cradle her face in his hands and wipe away her tears. "You have to explain. I don't understand-"

"Your brother is  _ gone _ , Adler- I-I'm so sorry, my son," his mother said through sniffles, and she let her face rest within her son's palm. "He's gone."

"But gone doesn't- is he- is Keeva-" Adler couldn't even finish the sentence. He simply couldn't fathom the idea that Keeva was- He  _ couldn't _ be.

" _ Dead _ ," Adia said in a broken sob. "My boy is dead. He's  _ dead _ \- My son-"

Adler was desperately hung up on any hope that there were details missing, but his mother was inconsolable, and he was weak from shock. He simply held her, tried to comfort her, though he found it hard to breathe himself. He didn't understand. He refused to accept it. 

But he couldn't do anything at the moment. Absolutely nothing but hold his grieving mother and battle the nausea that made his head dizzy.


	6. Reunited

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is canon stuff from our first session (or maybe the second one??), but i rewrote it from Adler's perspective. this is super keeva/adler focused, but it happened in a canon session which is why it goes in this doc and not the caraxios doc! not that anyone other than me cares about the distinction! some stuff may be off from some of the canon things because i don't have a recording of that session to go off of, but , like, listen. who cares. its fine. i'm emotional.
> 
> additional note: adler is mute due to a throat injury, so any dialogue he has is in italics from him signing, but like. it's clear when you see it. 
> 
> the gaps between sections of narrative are essentially time skips over one big scene that takes place over the course of like, thirty minutes or so?? these are just blips

"Hey, you! Turn around!"

Adler was just registering how familiar the shade of honey-Auburn the human's messily styled hair was and the peculiar circumstances of the human and the unfamiliar twi'lek here in this break room as the pair of them turned around in unison at the guard's orders. They both raised their hands as they turned, and the human's eyes were wide with shock.

And for the first time in a long time, Adler tried to speak. He hardly even registered the rasp of air that escaped his damaged throat because a familiar golden stare he both saw every day and hadn't seen for six very long years stared at him.

And he did look so much like Liah now, Adler's bones were paralyzed in place.

He almost didn't register the voice of his own guard giving an order to the intruders because he had no time to prepare himself for Keeva's voice.

"Whoa, whoa, what's the issue?!" Keeva asked frantically, and Adler could tell right away he was putting on a show, despite even the obvious fact that Keeva spoke with a different accent. His voice had matured, though retained a boyish inflection that suited him perfectly. "Is this- Is this because we were late?? Because we already explained to the foreman-"

"Agent Caraxio has requested to see you," Adler's guard relayed, and two troopers moved to retain Keeva and his partner.

"Agent who??? I don't- Whoa, watch it!" Keeva stuttered, flinching away from the blaster that was pointed toward him now. Adler caught Keeva's eyes fill with dread at the sound of his last name. Some part of him was equally as surprised as the display he put on. "I don't know a Craxnio, okay? Look, man- I really just want to get on with my work, yeah? I was out with my girl, and she broke up with me, then she stole my credits, and I had to walk here from the inner town, and I was late and the foreman snapped at me and-" Keeva was cut off by a sharp jab to his ribs by the twi'lek's elbow, and he shot her a dirty look, though kept his mouth shut. A part of Adler was so entranced by his brother's voice that he felt a burn of emotion at the back of his throat to hear Keeva's relentless rambling again.

Adler's guard looked to him, and Adler signed for them to go ahead and place the binders on Keeva and the twi'lek. Liah had still requested them, and Adler would have more time to think if he went along with things as normal.

As the guards began to move toward the pair of them with binders out and ready, Keeva took a half step back, bumping into the terminal, and saying desperately, "What does this Agent even want with us?!"

"She wants to speak with  _ you _ ," the guard clarified, nodding at his troopers to continue, and Adler watched as Keeva snatched his hands up into the air further and gave the trooper nearest him a defiant look.

"Oh, so this has nothing to do with me?" the twi'lek voiced, her bored, accented tone catching Adler off guard. "If you are just wanting him, can I go?"

"Wh- wait, what?!" Keeva snapped, turning towards her with genuine shock. "You- You're just gonna leave me with them?"

"Yes," the twi'lek said easily. 

While Keeva scoffed and sputtered, Adler's guard regarded him, and Adler signed for them to take the twi'lek away to the brig. She would just get in the way of whatever was about to happen with Liah, and Adler preferred there to be no more interruptions.

"Sure," his guard relayed back to them, and Keeva looked between the troopers and his partner with disdain. "You can go."

"I can't believe you- you big jerk!! Are you KIDDING me!!!" Keeva raved, grabbing the twi'lek by the front of her jumper and shaking her around, despite her short protests. Adler watched as two troopers took each of them and pulled Keeva away, despite his brief continued wrestling, and Adler just barely caught Keeva's fingertips exiting the inside of the twi'lek's jumper. Had he stolen something, or placed something in her clothes?

Keeva quit struggling and grumbled as two more troopers led his partner out of the room, and Keeva turned his eyes to Adler. The look he gave Adler was intended, no doubt, to be defiant and annoyed, but Adler saw straight past that to the anger and fear. His brother scoffed and begrudgingly stuck his hands out for the trooper to place the binders on him, mumbling about how unnecessary this all seemed.

Adler signed for the troopers to follow him, and he was grateful that his body complied with his own orders despite the cold numbness drenching his body.

They began towards the lift up to Liah's office, and Adler couldn't help but wonder if she'd known. She never cared about Keeva's disappearance. She had only been bothered because Adler had been so devastated. He wasn't a fool. If Liah knew Keeva was alive and had sent for him purposefully, she had a plot. And part of that plot was sending Adler to fetch him blindly. He'd long since accepted that his sister was changed, more ruthless than she'd once been, but the pure cruelty of this action left him seething.

Liah was testing him. She was testing his love and loyalty, wasn't she?  _ Fine _ , he resigned to himself.  _ I'll go along for now. _ Though, his thoughts shifted back to Keeva, and that's when he heard the heavy footstep of someone stumbling, and everything began to happen very quickly. 

\---

If Adler had thought he couldn't be any more broken than he already was, something else inside himself fractured as he watched Keeva blasted with two stun shots, almost completely ignorant of Keeva's shot grazing the shoulder of his armour. His brother convulsed a few times with a pained noise before he lost consciousness, and two troopers roughly hoisted him up.

"How did he manage to do that?" the guard now on the ground choking on a wheeze from his injured side managed to say. "How did he get his hands on that blaster?"

"He managed to do more than any regular contracted hire should have been able to do," mumbled a different soldier. "Do you think he was another assassination attempt? He singed your armour, sir," he added, addressing Adler now specifically. 

Adler seriously doubted Keeva was a contracted killer, so he simply signed,  _ Let's go, _ and turned to continue their way up to Liah's office. He heard his second in command send a trooper to take the injured one to the infirmary and carry the dead one out of the hall. He idly wondered if Keeva hadn't been so shaken up, would his shot have hit Adler square in the chest? What poetic irony it would have been.

_ Is he still unconscious? _ he signed as they approached Liah's office.

"It seems so, sir."

Adler didn't bother responding, just entered Liah's office and frowned at the nonchalant sight of his twin behind her desk, looking too smug to be unaware of the situation at hand.

\---

Adler waited until Liah was outside of the office, and for an extra two heartbeats, before he allowed himself to look at Keeva-  _ really _ look at him.

His baby brother was skinnier than last he saw him. He'd lost much of the muscle mass Father had spent Keeva's entire life training him to accumulate, but Adler was sure this lankier build allowed him more speed to weasel out of tight spots. He noticed Keeva's freckles more prominent than they'd been before- perhaps he'd spent a while on a sunny planet.

His face had shed almost all of the precious baby fat that had always left him more  _ adorable _ than  _ handsome _ , and he wore his matured features well, although at the moment, they were slack with shock, taking in Adler just the same.

And it was all Adler could do to not completely fall apart.

He couldn't believe after finally resolving that he would never see Keeva again… After all that time… And  _ here he was.  _

He saw as something clicked into place in Keeva's expression, and half a second later the boy was firing question after question after question at him. Instinct took over, and Adler reached forward and placed his hand gently over Keeva's mouth. His throat burned with emotion as his brother silenced the same way he always had. Some part of Adler's mind felt another bout of confirmation at this, thinking,  _ So it  _ is _ truly him, isn't it? _

Adler raised the first finger of his free hand to his lips, requesting Keeva to stay as quiet and calm as possible. All they needed was for Liah to enter again. He signed to ask Keeva if he understood, and mouthed the word with raised eyebrows, suspecting Keeva didn't understand sign language. Keeva nodded once, staring at Adler as if he were afraid he might disappear (to which Adler could wholly relate), and Adler slowly removed his hand from Keeva's mouth. 

He lowered himself to one knee before Keeva and quickly moved to unlock the binders, meeting Keeva's eyes again as he placed the restraints on the floor. 

He could smell Keeva now. He smelled like an odd mixture of alcohol, grease, and dust, which Adler suspected was mostly from wherever he'd gotten this uniform from. He wished he could have made a joke telling Keeva to take a shower.

He wished he could have  _ spoken _ to Keeva. For the first time in a while, Adler bitterly remarked on how unfair his condition was, denying him now the chance to speak to his brother with his own voice. Keeva deserved to hear his voice again, to hear him tell his brother that he  _ loved  _ him- that he'd missed him more than any language of words could relay. 

_ You've grown up _ , he wanted to say.

He saw tears welling up in Keeva's eyes, and he realized that Keeva's hands were slowly rising forward, his fingertips just barely dusting Adler's face-

The sound of the door opening and closing combined with the peripheral view of his guards raising their blasters snatched Adler's attention away from Keeva, and he rose to his feet with his hands up.

\---

His mind racing, Adler settled on a decision. A very hard decision only big brothers are burdened with making.

Keeva was going on about the Mandalorian, and started switching his blaster's barrel between the assassin and his own chest, clearly unsure which would be dramatic enough to make things go his way. Adler reached over and placed his hand on the blaster, and Keeva's gaze snapped up to meet his own. He allowed Adler to take the blaster from him, and confusion took over his expression as he started to sputter out more questions.

And Adler allowed himself a deep breath and he reached forward and pulled his little brother into a hug. He knew he probably held him too tightly, especially against his armour, but he couldn't help it. Keeva didn't respond at first, then he forced his hands between them against Adler's chest, stared at him with a watery gaze, and threw his arms around Adler's torso, finally able to place his head into the crook of Adler's neck thanks to his new height. 

He rested his cheek against Keeva's head, lacing his gloved fingers into Keeva's hair that fell against his neck and his other hand firmly on the boy's back.


	7. The Escape

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is also canon stuff!! from one of our first sessions, keeva and koyi trying to escape the manaan imperial base with the spice they were hired to smuggle out, plus mandalorian essek who was locked up for trying to assassinate liah and is koyi's old friend (it's complicated).

Keeva never registered the explosion, only the moments after when he felt a sharp sting on the side of his head, lots of tingling pains on the right side of his body, and the incredible and uncomfortable warmth that was filling the room. The smoke and heavy atmosphere clued him in to the fire that was rapidly spreading, and he scrambled to his feet just in time to feel a blast fly over his shoulder and one-shot the trooper in the furthest corner of the room. He whipped his head around to find Koyi kneeling with her short-range blaster raised, and he couldn’t help the way his mouth fell open a bit.

“Good shot,” he tried to say, though he wasn’t sure if the words actually left his mouth, as he realized at the same time that her Mandalorian companion was nowhere to be seen. There was the sound of a blaster going off, and Keeva turned back around to find the guy standing in the middle of the room as the final trooper’s body fell to the ground. Keeva also noticed the fires beginning to dance their way in his and Koyi’s direction in his peripheral vision. 

His heart was beating hard. His lungs seemed to still be functioning, though, so he took a sharp inhale and quickly grabbed a hold of Koyi’s wrist and pulled her along hastily as the Mandalorian called out, “Hurry up, kiddos! Time to go!” Keeva resisted the urge to snap about not being a  _ kiddo _ , but Koyi stumbled and snatched her hand away, so he just bit his tongue and kept running to the lift, knowing she was behind him.

The dreaded sound of marching troopers added to the chaos as he and Koyi jumped into the lift. He absently noticed the Mandalorian banging on the control panel a few times as a new squad of troopers entered the, now very firey, room. He raised his blaster to begin shooting, but just as his finger began to pull the trigger, he felt Koyi move beside him, heard a faint  _ click _ , and saw her frag grenade fly out into the room half of a second before the doors to the lift slid shut and began shuttling them upwards. The explosion rocked the room so terribly, the lift shuddered in response, and Keeva swallowed hard. So much for sneakery.

“You said the Spice is waiting for us, right?” Keeva asked, shifting his gaze to look at Koyi, who was regarding him with a look of absent concern. He bit his tongue harder in his mouth.

“Yes, it should be,” she said with a nod.

“You must be Koko’s friend,” the Mandalorian said, his up-beat tone filtered through his intimidating helmet. “Nice to meet you!”

Keeva could feel that the guy had his hand outstretched, and for a second, Keeva ignored it. He didn’t want to introduce himself to this Mandalorian. And why did he insist on calling Koyi ‘ _ Koko’ _ ? And why did she allow him to?!

But Keeva was a man of manners, so he twisted his body just enough to see the Mandalorian and his awaiting hand. He reached out and gave it a short, firm shake, saying dryly, “Charmed,” before turning back to face the doors. Was this thing even moving anymore? It sure didn’t seem like it. It felt like it was taking forever. The addition of elevator music only made it a thousand times worse. For a moment, Keeva wanted to scream. Or shoot the doors. Or hit something. Or cry.

He heard the Mandalorian mumbling behind him, “Is, uh, your pal always like this, Koko?” Koyi muttered something to hopefully quiet the man, and Keeva started impatiently pressing the floor button in desperate hopes of making this trip any shorter.

As the lift let out a pleasant  _ ding _ signifying they’d reached their floor, Keeva lifted his heavy blaster and prepared to fire at anyone unfriendly waiting on the other side of the doors. He felt Koyi preparing her own blasters, but he kept his body ahead of her. He wouldn’t let the Mandalorian get ahead of him this time.

The doors opened to reveal a regular trooper, and Keeva lifted his chin in question with a firm expression, giving the trooper a moment to react before he fired. Thankfully, the trooper quickly raised his arms and said, “The speeder is over there-” Keeva didn’t wait to hear the rest; he moved on, noticing Koyi didn’t follow him, and marked the speeder with three crates that had to be for them. He made sure the speeder was proper and ready to fly before beginning to load the crates onto the trailer. It took less time than whatever Koyi and the Mandalorian were taking to speak to the stormtrooper, and he stood up on the trailer, blaster ready, once he was finished. He looked around the dock, but didn’t see any sign of trouble other than the Mandalorian standing uncomfortably near his partner. The three of them regarded Keeva, and with a parting word, finally walked over to join him at the speeder. He wondered if it had really taken so long, or if it just felt that way to him, as situations often did seem to drag from his perspective. 

The Mandalorian and Koyi jumped into the seats, and Keeva felt something in his gut twinge a moment before far too many troopers began rushing the docks, firing blindly at the speeder. Keeva shot back, telling himself he took out a good amount of them as they got out into the streets.

And he got a horrible chill as he identified the next sound that filled the air, and his eyes landed on two TIE fighters that quickly followed them away from the base.

\---

Keeva walked down the ramp, grumbling about how he hoped Koyi and the Mandalorian were back, but he dropped his attitude when he saw them turning the corner and running with their crates. Koyi waved at him frantically to go, and Keeva put his hand on Khasper’s shoulder firmly. “You probably want to go ahead and get settled in on board, little man,” he told Khasper, ignoring the boy’s confused expression as he ushered him aboard and quickly ran to the cockpit.

His entire body was vibrating. Had Liah caught up to them? Was it someone worse? Who was chasing them now? Was Adler alright? Would Keeva be able to get the ship going? Had Khasper accidentally damaged the ship? What if they couldn’t take off? His mind was racing so fast, he barely registered how his body ignored his frantic mental questions and began prepping the ship for take-off. The dash clicked as Koyi and the Mandalorian closed off and locked the loading bay, and Keeva realized that he was beginning to hyperventilate. He couldn’t fly the ship. He didn’t have the skill. His hands were too sweaty. What if Koyi didn’t get back to her seat before they needed to go into hyperspace? What if he had to try to fly them into hyperspace alone? What if he damaged something? Koyi would kill him if he damaged the ship in any way. Could he blame her for him damaging it because she hadn’t gotten to the cockpit in time?

And still, the logical part of his mind pointed out that he was taking off as smoothly as he always did, as well as the fact that Koyi entered the cockpit and took her seat in the captain’s chair. He finished his procedure for turning them into position to leave, then quickly and gratefully passed control over to her station.


	8. Trisk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not canon events, but some blips of adler's inner monologue after the events of the previous chapters when keeva, koyi, and essek escaped manaan

_ Trisk. _

Short, strange, but distinct.

_ Trisk. Trisk. Trisk. _

Adler repeated the name over and over in his head. He'd committed it to memory, but after being filled in by Liah and several of his other soldiers (which provided two very different levels of severity) about what happened after he'd been stunned, he couldn't bring himself to let the name slip from the front of his mind until he'd written it down for himself somewhere safe. 

_ Trisk. _

So that was the name Keeva had been using this whole time. Adler desperately tried to track through his memories to see if he had ever encountered the name before. He didn't think he had, but…

How many times had he gotten near Keeva without even realizing? Had he ever? Had they ever crossed paths?

That didn't matter anymore. He knew Keeva's chosen name now, and he'd seen his brother with his own eyes, held him in his arms. Now he had something to work with. 

Liah doted on him with curses and irritated sneers about their brother, completely blaming him for the attack that rendered Adler and his men unconscious. Apparently, Keeva or his friends had shot the binders to make it look as if there'd been a coordinated escape, which only made Liah madder. He tried to calm her, but she stayed content with her anger. 

He later heard about the mechanic who'd been killed by the intruders by in the city's main docks as well as the three cases of confiscated Spice taken from the Empire. He supposed that had been what they showed up for anyway. 

\---

A week later brought a new surprise to Adler's new investigation into Keeva. One of his troopers had actually been in Keeva's class for a few years and said that Keeva went by "Trisk" as a smuggler for students who could afford him. Adler's shock was thankfully hidden under his helmet, but he was bewildered nonetheless. 

Upon asking what things keeva smuggled, the trooper scoffed and asked if there was anything keeva  _ couldn't  _ sneak in. Apparently his brother used their surname to keep out of trouble and under the radar (which didn't make sense to Adler at first until he considered the tactics of it later) and he networked with suppliers for other kids who also snuck forbidden items into the school.

Overall, the fact that his brother had apparently been smuggling during or just after their shared year at the Academy of Carida was shock enough to Adler to make him need some time alone to consider things about his little brother he’d never thought of before. 

Of course he’d always known how bright and clever Keeva was, but he supposed he’d just never realized how… sneaky and calculating he could be. It made him think of their father, and of Liah, both sending a bit of nausea to his gut. He wondered if Chaser had known. He wondered if Paxa had known.

Adler clenched his fists and took a deep breath. He needed more information.


	9. Rest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this is uhh well more or less canon?? this is time that takes place between two existing sessions, and cara and i sorta discussed these events happening, but i just took the things we talked about and wrote them into blips!!! so. theyre. canon adjacent! i guess!
> 
> ruben was keeva's smuggling mentor for almost two years before he joined up with koyi three years prior to present day. ruben sees keeva essentially as his son (':

"Oh, boy- there he is!" Ruben said with a mix of exasperation, relief, and a little bit of emotion at the sight of his old ward. He hadn't seen Trisk like this in so long, he'd just about forgotten about this little habit of his.

Trisk sat against a wall in the cargo bay between a shelf and one of Ace's land speeders that was shoved against the wall for repairs. His knees were pulled tight to his chest, but his arms limply held them there. His left cheek was against his knees as he quietly slept, and Ruben had no doubt that the kid was drooling. 

"Why the hell is he asleep like that there?" Ace asked with tired bewilderment. "Does he think my ship is some sort of madhouse where angsty teens can just curl up wherever they fuckin' please for no reason? We've got beds! There's a second couch!"

"He does this when he can't sleep or if he's uncomfortable," Ruben explained, running a hand through his hair. "Used to do it on the  _ Grease Bucket _ now and then, usually when we had temp crew members. Doesn't trust easy, that Trisky!"

"So he just fuckin' decided my cargo bay was a safe place to take a snooze?" Ace asked, and Ruben laughed a little. 

"Here, I'll go take him somewhere else," Ruben said, starting to go over to pick his kid up. 

The captain shook his head and waved Ruben off. "No, no, I'll get him. I'll put him across from his pal in the common area," Ace said, kneeling down in front of Trisk and scoffing at the drool soaked into the kid's knee. "Drools more than Kaz used to," he grumbled as he took Trisk's arms and put them over his shoulders and heaved the kid up, holding Trisk against his chest with his hands under Trisk's thighs. Trisk's face sat against Ace's shoulder where Ruben could see his face, and Ruben reached over and rubbed some dirt off his forehead. He had a few scrapes and scuffs blending in with his freckles, and the headband that had been keeping his curly bangs out of his face was dangling around his neck, letting wild reddish-blond curls fall in a mess around his little face.

"You think he's a bit big for that, Ace?" Ruben asked with amusement. Trisk looked so cute, he could just melt!! Ruben watched as Trisk mumbled something and turned his head to press his face into Ace's neck, curling one arm around the captain's shoulders.

Ace sighed tiredly and adjusted his hold on the kid. "He's not as big as he thinks he is," he said, and Ruben was inclined to agree, nodding with a shrug. 

Trisk always  _ did _ try to act more grown up than he was. It worried Ruben to death, but it seemed like, more or less, Trisky had been doing alright for himself. As that thought crossed his mind, he tried not to think about the bounty that was now on his kid's head. And the fact that whoever within the Empire put that bounty on his head must've been from Trisk's secretive past.

"Are you tearing up, mate?" Ace asked once he finally had Trisk settled in his arms and turned to leave the cargo bay.

Ruben sniffled and rubbed his eyes. "I just can't help it, Ace!! That's my kid! I'm just- boy, it's just so nice to see him, y'know, it's been over three years, and I've hardly heard anything from him in the meantime. I'd get some messages through to him now and then through some of our old contacts, but he'd fall off after a few back-and-forths and tell me how he kept their signals scrambled often to keep under the Imperial radar."

"Maybe. Seems like he had good reason then," Ace said, and he started to walk back towards the main part of the ship. "'Specially after that damn PSA  _ osik _ the Empire put out.  _ Shabuir.  _ Hmph."

"Maybe," Ruben said with a sigh. He followed Ace and kept his eyes on Trisk, looking for any new scars or signs of injury on the boy's exposed skin. "I never knew anything of him having any business with the Empire. He never seemed to have issues when we'd do jobs for the imps- hell, those were some of the jobs he did best! I always wondered if he ran away from an Academy or something from the way he could get his little fingers in their systems."

"Well, if he's managed to keep them off his trail this long, I'm sure he'll be able to sort out this Imperial bounty business," Ace said as they walked into common area. He adjusted Trisk again, though thankfully the kid wasn't too heavy. He probably needed to eat more, actually. Aw, hell, as if Ace needed another fuckin' kid to worry about. He sighed, and Essek's helmet tilted towards them in acknowledgement when they walked in. "How's the leg, kid?" Ace asked, grunting as he laid Trisk down as easily as possible on the second couch. He really didn't wanna wake this kid up.

"Fine, just sore," Essek said with a little shrug. "Is he actually finally asleep?"

"Yep. By the way ue acted earlier, he'll probably be out a while," Ruben said, going over and smoothing Trisk's hair a little.

"Kriffing finally," Essek said with an exasperated sigh, and he shook his head. "I don't know when the actual last time he slept was, but like, ten hours ago or something we got into a fight and he got knocked the fuck out. I've been trying to get him to rest, but he's very annoyingly stubborn."

"That's my Trisky," Ruben said, trying to hold back emotion in his voice as he looked down at his snoozing kid. "Did he have a concussion?"

"Probably," Essek said, his voice trailing like he was going to add to the statement but seemingly deciding against it.

Ace grumbled something about annoyingly stubborn kids as he disarmed Trisk and gave his pistols to Ruben. "Long as he sleeps it off here and not in my cargo bay, he can sleep as long as he needs to," he said, sighing and running a hand through his hair. He decided that since they'd found Trisk and got him sorted out, he wanted to go check on Rion again. He'd mentioned feeling weird earlier, like a  _ Force _ kind of weird, Ace figured. He didn't know what would've caused Rio to start feeling unsettled the way he seemingly did, but he wanted to make sure his son was alright as best he could. Ace couldn't help him with Force stuff, but he would always be there for him no matter what. 

"I'm gonna go check on my own kid," Ace said finally. He lifted one hand and pointed two fingers at Ruben and Essek. "Both of you get some shut-eye too. Come get me if there's an emergency, otherwise don't bother me again tonight," he added to Essek, who gave him a firm nod. Ace sighed and left, wondering if he should stay with Rio is his room tonight. 

\---

Essek was adjusting the bacta pack on his leg when Keeva finally stirred. Ez flicked his eyes up after the kid mumbled something and flinched. He watched as Keeva's head popped up a little, and then he violently started pushing himself up to his knees. His heavy breathing was pretty loud, and the blanket Ruben had placed over him fell down his back as he frantically patted himself down for his weapons, looking at his missing holsters in confusion and then quickly looking around. Ez caught his eyes once the kid finally noticed him, and Keeva flinched, fear and confusion spread across his freckled, slobbery face. He looked around again, seeming to remember where he was, and he collapsed onto his side, groaning and rubbing his face tiredly.

_ Surprised he’s already up _ , Essek thought to himself, taking note of the time in his HUD. By his count, Keeva had slept around nine hours, and he'd secretly bet himself that the kid would've been out at  _ least _ ten. He hadn't been able to get much sleep himself, mostly plagued with thoughts of his family and remnants of his argument with Keeva earlier. One of the  _ Reconnaissance  _ members had given him a bacta pack for his leg once she'd gotten up, and he'd managed another two hours after that. The rest of the time had spent mostly overthinking his problems and his past and taking note of Keeva's sleep habits, which didn't appear to extend much outside running a hand through his hair, laying on his stomach, and drooling.

Keeva curled up on his side and gave Essek what appeared to be an irritated tired look at first, but then he realized it looked more… unsettled than irritated. He wondered if the kid had been startled awake by a nightmare or something. 

He didn't say anything to Essek, but after a few moments, he rolled off the couch and rubbed his neck before quietly leaving towards the back of the ship. Ez heard the older kid, Rio, greet Keeva before what he assumed to be the door to the fresher opened and closed. 

"Your friend sure slept a long time," Rio said as he walked into the common area. 

"He needed it. He's been very stressed and got hurt pretty bad yesterday," Ez explained with a sigh.

"Oh, is he still hurt? I could… we could help him if he is," Rio said, though he had a little uncertainty in his tone that threw Essek off.

He waved a hand to the kid and shook his head. "Don't bother. The womprat is too stubborn to let anyone help him right now. He'll be alright so long as he takes it easy."

Rio nodded and gave Ez a little smile. "Well, let me know if you need anything, okay?" Ez gave the kid a smile he couldnt see and nodded, watching idly as the zabrak boy exited the room, likely to go find his dad.

It was another few minutes before Keeva came back, and it looked like he'd rinsed off his face and neck from the looks of damp ginger curls and water streaks down the front of his shirt. He hadn't replaced his headband, so his curly fringe dusted his eyebrows. 

"What time is it?" his groggy, sleep-ridden voice asked.

"Just about eleven."

Keeva hummed and went back to his couch, falling to his knees on the cushion and then to his hands that lowered him back to his stomach. He fumbled with the blanket a little as he draped it back over himself, and he ruffled his hair before resting his head on folded arms. Essek watched his golden stare look around a little before landing on his propped up leg and then his face. Ez wished Keeva could see how he raised an eyebrow at the kid. With a sigh and a mumble about sleeping another hour or two, Ez watched as Keeva shut his eyes, and within two minutes, he was right back asleep. He took note of the time and made another bet with himself for how long Keeva would be out for this time.

\--

Keeva was shaken from a dream he didn't quite want to think about yet, and he slowly opened his eyes. Essek was still across the room, though he appeared to be slightly off from his earlier position, indicating he'd gotten up at some point. He seemed to be messing with one of his bracers he'd removed and now had in his lap.

With an exhale, Keeva reached up and groggily scrubbed at his face. He had no idea what time it was or how long he'd slept for, but he fought away the urge to go back to sleep- he knew however long it had been was  _ too _ long, that was for sure.


End file.
